‘Rock stars’ for Romney: Jeb and Condi campaign in Broward County

DAVIE — President Obama campaigned with the rapper Pitbull on Sunday and has Bruce Springsteen on the trail with him today.

Mitt Romney‘s campaign relied on a different kind of star power here this afternoon.

“On the other side, they may have Pitbull and Bruce Springsteen, but you’re going to get to see some of the rock stars that we have on our ticket today with Jeb Bush and Condoleezza Rice,” Republican congressional hopeful Adam Hasner told a crowd of about 200 at a get-out-the-vote rally at Broward College.

Former Secretary of State Rice scoffed at Democratic talk of a “war on women” while former Gov. Bush called Obama a failed president who has brought division during his term.

Rice said that with Romney as president, “Our friends in places like Israel will know that we are their friend. And I know that our enemies and our foes in places like Venezuela and Cuba and Iran will know that they should not underestimate us and they should not cross us.”

Rice also weighed in on the gender gap.

“All of this nonsense out there about the war on women — who are we kidding? I am a woman. I know that what we are getting from Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan is respect and understanding that women are single women and mothers and daughters and wives and that they too want an economy recovering where people can find jobs,” Rice said.

“The president of the United States for the last four years has had ample opportunity. He had 60 votes, Democrats in the Senate. And he had the House Democrat for the first two years. He could have led. He could have created consensus on these bigger things that need to get done that require Democrats and Republicans working together. But he shunned that idea. And now we are a divided country and we need a new President that will unite us,” Bush said.

In an interview afterward, Bush predicted Romney will win Florida and the presidency on Tuesday.

Although many polls show Obama with a narrow edge in several swing states, Bush said Romney has more enthusiastic supporters and appears to be winning independent voters.

“You combine those two things it’s very hard for me to imagine how at the end Romney doesn’t win, if not all the swing states, pretty close to it,” Bush said.

“I cannot believe that the president will have anything close to the kind of passionate support he had four years ago, which was a tidal wave…I don’t see it now. When the president of the United States, as a candidate, says get revenge — don’t boo, get revenge against his opponent — that’s not hope and change. That is just ugly. I think people, independents in particular, are turned off by that,” Bush said.

On the campaign trail, Obama regularly describes Romney’s proposals in a way the elicits boos from his audience. Obama then replies: “Don’t boo — vote.” At a recent rally in Ohio, Obama drew criticism for also saying “Voting is the best revenge.”

Bush last week criticized Obama for regularly reminding voters of the bad economic conditions he inherited when he succeeded Bush’s older brother, former President George W. Bush.

Asked about it today, Jeb Bush said: “You can take it all the way back to Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan. There’s this constant energy around defusing a difficult circumstance so that he’s not held to account. And people want leadership. The lesson I learned when I was governor was, when you screw up, admit it, accept responsibility, fix the problem and move on. People will respect you a lot more than saying the dog ate your homework. It’s just, the cumulative effect of this after nearly four years of the presidency — my gosh, what point is it going to be the responsibility of the president?”